The snake has no
external ear to stop and
no tympanic activity. (Hastings 1902)

It seems unlikely
that
snakes can hear airborne
sounds at all well, though doubtless they are sensitive to ground
vibrations
transmitted through the bones of the jaw. (Young 1962)

Actually, the snakes
are
probably quite deaf
to the sound of the pipe and its use is really in the nature of
deception.
(Barnett 1967)

The pipe is merely a
stage
prop, and it is
not used by all performers, because snakes are deaf, or, in other
words,
they cannot perceive air-borne vibrations. They have no ear drum that
in
most other terrestrial animals vibrate in time to the airborne waves,
and
they do not have the system of bones and ducts that convey the
vibrations
from the eardrum to the sense cells of the inner ear. (Purnell 1969)

The Indian Cobra is
popularly thought of
as dancing to the music of a snake charmer's flute. However, snakes
cannot
hear, and the poised snake is simply following the movement of the
charmer.
(Students Encyclopedia 1977)

The cobras appear to
respond to the music
played by the charmer, but, like all snakes, are deaf, and only follow
the movements of the charmer. (New Illustrated Columbia Encyclopedia
1978)

Cobras are deaf and
cannot
hear the music.
The sounds produced on the flute are superfluous, for the pendulum-like
movement of the cobra's body is merely a response to the movement of
the
snake charmer's flute. (Felix 1983)

In fact, the snake
can't
hear the music,
or anything else for that matter. Snakes are deaf! (Fantastic Facts
1986)

Although most people
assume that the snake
is charmed by the music, it cannot hear sounds in the air. (Belinda
1989)

Snakes do not have
ears;
they are deaf to
airborne sounds and human voices… (Nowinsky, n.d.)

A snake charmer knows
details about snakes
that we do not know. He knows, for example, that snakes are deaf – they
do
not dance to the tunes of their 'masters'. (National Geographic website)

THE
BIBLE

Psalm 58 says:

The wicked go astray
from the womb, they err from
their
birth speaking lies. They have venom
like
the venom of a serpent, like the deaf
adder
that stops its ear, so that it does
not
hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning
enchanter. (58:3-4)

The "deaf adder"
is
probably the cobra.
The Scripture implies that it can hear but is deaf when it "stops its
ear".
The comparison is with "the wicked" who have the ability to hear but do
not listen to counsel. They in effect "stop" their ears. For the
comparison
with the cobra to be valid the cobra too must be able to hear but
sometimes
"stops its ear" and does not react to the charmer.

The implication that
cobras can hear put
20th century Christian writers into a quandry particularly
after
1923 when science seemed conclusive:

The most complete
set of
hearing experiments
ever conducted on snakes – and these were principally on rattlesnakes –
were
made in 1923. They concluded that rattlesnakes are deaf, in the usual
sense
of the word, and that no rattler ever heard another's rattle. (Klauber
1982)

George Cansdale (Animals
of Bible
Lands 1970) shows the Bible to be accurate in hundreds of
statements
about animals. However, in the case of the cobra Cansdale failed:

It is now agreed
that
all snakes are deaf,
though they have some capacity to sense vibrations received through the
ground, and the charmer holds their attention by the movement of his
pipe,
not its music. (p. 206)

Anyone can observe
that snakes lack external
ears. The "ear" in Psalm 58 must be an internal "ear". If snakes are
deaf
we would not expect them to have an "ear" – that is an internal "ear".
Therefore, we have two questions:

1. Do snakes
have an
internal ear? 2. Can snakes hear
airborne sounds?

THE
NEW
YORK TIMES 1954

The New York Times
(1954 January 10
Section 4 p. 9) suggested cobras hear but the evidence is anecdotal
rather
than scientific:

Are Snakes 'Charmed' by Music?

Cartoonists often
show a monstrous reptile weaving to and fro in front
of a snake charmer who is fingering a musical instrument.

Zoologists have
scoffed. Snakes do not have a highly developed sense
of hearing, some said. Others have maintained that snakes are stone
deaf.
How could serpents be "charmed" by music, they ask.

Support for the
effectiveness of snake charming, and the auditory acuteness
of serpents in general, appeared last week, in, of all places, the
Journal
of the American Medical Association.

Work With
Cobras

Dr. David I. Macht,
research pharmacologist of the Mount Sinai Hospital
in Baltimore, is one of the world's leading authorities on cobra snake
venom. (Cobra venom is an accepted medication, in blood disorders for
instance.)

Dr. Macht reported
that in working with cobras and cobra venom he became
acquainted with a number of Hindu physicians, well educated, and from
different
parts of India. All agreed that cobras respond to some musical tones,
from musical pipes or fifes.

Some forms of music
excite the animals more than other forms, the physicians
reported. Indian children, playing in the dark in the countryside, are
even warned not to sing lest their sounds attract cobras, he said.

On the other hand
Dr. Macht said, the psalmist was right who implied
conversely, in Psalm 58, Verse 5, that serpents can hear:

Their poison is like
the poison of serpents;
They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers,
Charming never so wisely.

Contrary to the
claims of some naturalists, Dr. Macht said, snakes are
"Charmed" by sounds, not by movements of the charmer. Revise the
textbooks,
the physicians recommended.

SNAKES
HEAR LOW FREQUENCIES

By the 1970s some
sources
acknowledged that
snakes are not "stone deaf" but hear low-frequency sounds. For example:

Experiments
show that
snakes cannot perceive
most air-borne sounds although they do respond to a restricted range of
low-frequency waves and to vibrations on the surface on which they
rest.
(Parker 1977)

…snakes
can hear only
a
limited range of
sounds and cannot hear the music. (The World Book Encyclopedia 1985,
Volume
4)

The snake
sways in
alert
response to the
charmer's movement, not to the sound of his pipe – snakes are deaf to
high
frequencies… (The New
Encyclopedia
Britannica 1988, Volume
3)

Lesson
one: snakes
are not
hypnotised by
a charmer's flute; in fact they cannot even hear it. The snake's
hearing
range is all in the low-frequency band, far below the pitch of a flute.
(Donald 1992)

The Bible implies
that
the snake hears
the "voice of the charmer." A singing charmer might be meant
rather
than an instrument-playing charmer. Either way the frequency range of
the
notes – whether sung or played – is relevant.

FREQUENCIES
OF MUSICAL NOTES

In music the notes are
written on sets of
five lines called a "staff" or a "stave". The frequency of Middle C is
262 hertz. The F on the top line of the Treble Staff is 698 hertz. The
G on the lowest line of the Bass Staff is 98 hertz. This, as shown
later,
is the frequency range in which snakes can hear.

Most music lies in the
range 73 to 1175 hertz.
The male speaking voice is about 150 hertz, the female speaking voice
239
hertz. The bass singing voice goes down to 70 hertz, the soprano rises
to 1050 hertz.

HIGH
COMMISSION OF INDIA

An inquiry by B Stett to
the High Commission
of India in 1991 gave the information that snake charmers of India use
an instrument called in Hindi a "Been".

R.N. ACHARYA
FIRST SECRETARY (Inf.)
HIGH COMMISION OF INDIA

16 October 91,

Dear Mr Stett

Even though we are
fairly familiar with snake charmers playing before
the Cobra it is hardly possible for us to answer the rather technical
or
musicological questions you have raised. We have read articles that
snakes
including the Cobras may not be able to directly hear the music which
is
played but that their under-bellies or sensors near their necks and
even
their tongues are very sensitive to vibrations from the ground;
therefore,
in a indirect way they are able to sense the sounds.

On the other hand,
many people in India including the snake charmers
do believe that snakes, especially the Cobras do actually hear some
sounds.
This accounts for the fact that occasionally snake charmers are called
into houses or areas with gardens which may have snakes including
Cobras
and are asked to attract these reptiles; this they do sometimes by
playing
on the instrument; sometimes from experience they know where to search.
When the Cobra sways in front of a snake charmer it is also stated that
it reacts to the movement of snake charmer's hands and the instrument
and
not so much to the music; again this is a matter on which specialists
could
inform you better. I am sure that Australia with its own wealth of
snake
life has competent herpetologists can give you good information.

2. The instrument
played by snake charmers in India is usually called
the 'Been', at least in Hindi and most parts of North India. It is
difficult
to identify what exactly are the notes and the ranges usually played
but
it would appear that the range is usually within an octave and
stretching
from middle 'C' or ' B' up to Treble 'C

Yours sincerely,

The playing range
suggested by the High Commission – Middle C to treble
C – would be 247 to 523 hertz.

If snakes are "deaf to
high frequencies" – as quoted previously from the 1988 Britannica – in
what range do they
hear?

Table
IHearing range of snakes and playing range
of various instruments

NOTES and FREQUENCY in HERTZ

SNAKE HEARING RANGE

USUAL COMPASS OF SELECTED
INSTRUMENTS

Recorder

Flute

Bassoon

Clarinet

Oboe

B 1976

*

A 1760

*

G 1568

*

*

F 1397

*

*

*

E 1319

*

*

*

D 1175

*

*

*

*

C 1047

*

*

*

*

B 988

*

*

*

*

A 880

*

*

*

*

G 784

*

*

*

*

F
698

*

*

*

*

*

E 659

*

*

*

*

*

D 587

*

*

*

*

*

C 523

*

*

*

*

*

B 494

*

*

*

*

*

*

A 440

*

*

*

*

*

*

G 392

*

*

*

*

*

*

F 349

*

*

*

*

*

*

E 330

*

*

*

*

*

*

D 294

*

*

*

*

*

*

Middle
C 262

*

*

*

*

*

*

B 247

*

*

*

*

A 220

*

*

*

G 196

*

*

*

F 175

*

*

*

E 165

*

*

*

D 147

*

*

C 131

*

*

B 123

*

*

A 110

*

*

G 98

*

*

F 87

*

E 82

*

D 73

*

BRITANNICA
DISCREPANCY

The 1988 edition
of The New Encyclopedia
Britannica says:

This fact [that
there is no external ear], together with a seeming
indifference to airborne sounds, has led to the supposition that snakes
are deaf or that they can perceive only such vibrations as reach them
through
the ground on which they crawl.

This supposition
is incorrect; snakes are sensitive to some airborne
sound waves and are able to receive them through a mechanism that
serves
as a substitute for the tympanic membrane…

Although the
sensitivity of the snake ear varies with the species, it
is appreciably sensitive only to tones in the low-frequency range,
usuallythose in
the region 100 to 700 hertz.

(Volume 27,
Sensory Reception)

The
frequency-range of
hearing in snakes –100 to 700 hertz – therefore covers the range of
most music and song!

The entire playing
range of the Indian
"Been" – about 247 to 523 hertz – is within the frequency range that
snakes
hear! Even the flute, which plays very high notes, could be heard by
snakes
for much of its playing range! (Table 1)

The quote from Volume
27
of the Britannica
was therefore inconsistent with the quote from Volume 3 where it said,
"snakes are deaf to high frequencies."

LETTERS
TO BRITANNICA and
REVISION

The Bible, together
with
the Britannica discrepancy
between Volumes 27 and 3, prompted two letters to the Britannica
editors.

The first letter, in
1991,
brought the discrepancy
between Volumes 27 and 3 to their attention:

L De Winter
1991 Sept 26
Birkenhead 5015

Public relations
Encyclopaedia Britannica
NSW

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a subscriber to
BRITANNICA and wish to call your attention to the
following information.

Volume 3 of THE
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA (1988) says: "The snake sways
in alert response to the charmer's movement, not to the sound of his
pipe
– snakes are deaf to high frequencies…" (p. 415)

Volume 27, under the
heading SENSORY RECEPTION–SNAKES: we learn that
snakes hear "through a mechanism that serves as a substitute for the
tympanic
membrane" and they hear in the frequency range 100 – 700 hertz.

Among woodwind
instruments the clarinet, English horn and bassoon are
able to cover this range. The oboe, flute and recorder only cover the
range
partly. The range of the flute is about 250 – 2000 hertz.

It seems clear,
therefore, that unless a snake charmer limits himself
to very high notes only, the cobra will hear at least some of the music
and therefore may be responding to the music.

Perhaps, then, the
entry in volume 3 needs to be updated and corrected.

Yours faithfully,

The second letter in
April
1994 supplied
more detail and inquired why the Britannica entry had not been
corrected.

The following reply,
dated
May 25, 1994,
was received from the Encyclopedia Britannica Inc Editorial Offices:

Dear Mr…

Please excuse our
delay in
responding to
your letter of 18 April regarding an error in the Micropaedia entry
"cobra".

Some time ago, the
editors
were informed
of the need to revise the entry, but it had not been possible to do so
before now. The editor responsible for the Micropaedia has scheduled
the
entry "cobra" for revision next year. We appreciate your taking the
time
to contact us.

The Britannica entry on
the
cobra was subsequently
slightly revised:

1988 version:

The snake sways
in
alert
response to the
charmer's movement, not to the sound of his pipe – snakes are deaf to
high
frequencies…

1997
Britannica
CD-ROM
version:

The snake sways
in
response to the movement
and perhaps also to the music of the charmer…